[ExI] israelis defeat physics

[spike]

> > On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 3:14 AM, spike<spike66 at att.net>  wrote:

> >> Recall that Iraq was facing a war with Iran in 2002.  That is why 
> >> Saddam tried to convince the world that he had nukes, so that it 
> >> would scare Iran away from attacking.
> 
> > Really?! Any source at hand?  Stefano
> 
>

Hi Stefano, if you believe cBS, here ya go.  Their credibility is in the
mud, not highly regarded in this country, but I see no reason to doubt the
word of Piro, who agrees with Tenet (who also has some serious credibility
problems):

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/24/60minutes/main3749494.shtml

The mainstream press never did talk much about the Piro story, even though
it has a ring of truth to it.  60 Minutes of course is the same "news"
program that ran the bogus Bush military records story, by the disgraced
former "news" anchor Dan Rather, so discount as you see fit.  Please, anyone
here who wishes to comment, did you know of Piro's report?  I have talked to
several well-informed people who never heard of it.

Here is an excerpt from Piro's 60 Minutes interview.  Piro had been in
charge of questioning Saddam in prison.  FBI agent Piro is talking to Scott
Pelley of 60 Minutes:


....That June 2000 speech was about weapons of mass destruction. In talking
casually about that speech, Saddam began to tell the story of his weapons.
It was a breakthrough that had taken five months.

"Oh, you couldn't imagine the excitement that I was feeling at that point,"
Piro remembers.

"And what did he tell you about how his weapons of mass destruction had been
destroyed?" Pelley asks.

"He told me that most of the WMD had been destroyed by the U.N. inspectors
in the '90s. And those that hadn't been destroyed by the inspectors were
unilaterally destroyed by Iraq," Piro says.

"So why keep the secret? Why put your nation at risk, why put your own life
at risk to maintain this charade?" Pelley asks.

"It was very important for him to project that because that was what kept
him, in his mind, in power. That capability kept the Iranians away. It kept
them from reinvading Iraq," Piro says.

Before his wars with America, Saddam had fought a ruinous eight year war
with Iran and it was Iran he still feared the most.

"He believed that he couldn't survive without the perception that he had
weapons of mass destruction?" Pelley asks.

"Absolutely," Piro says.

"As the U.S. marched toward war and we began massing troops on his border,
why didn't he stop it then? And say, 'Look, I have no weapons of mass
destruction.' I mean, how could he have wanted his country to be invaded?"
Pelley asks.

"He didn't. But he told me he initially miscalculated President Bush. And
President Bush's intentions. He thought the United States would retaliate
with the same type of attack as we did in 1998 under Operation Desert Fox.
Which was a four-day aerial attack. So you expected that initially," Piro
says.

Piro says Saddam expected some kind of an air campaign and that he could he
survive that. "He survived that once. And then he was willing to accept that
type of attack. That type of damage," he says.

"Saddam didn't believe that the United States would invade," Pelley remarks.

"Not initially, no," Piro says.

"Once it was clear to him that there was going to be an invasion of the
country. I mean, did he actually believe that his armies could win?" Pelley
asks.

"No," Piro says. "What he had asked of his military leaders and senior
government officials was to give him two weeks. And at that point it would
go into what he called the secret war."

"The secret war. What did he mean?" Pelley asks.

"Going from a conventional to an unconventional war," Piro says.

"So the insurgency was part of his plan from the very beginning," Pelley
remarks.

"Well, he would like to take credit for the insurgency," Piro says.

Central to that insurgency were Saddam's sons, that is, before they were
killed by U.S. forces...